Popular culture tells us that when I was a little girl, we used to celebrate Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday along with Valentine’s Day every February. However, due to the difficulty in having two such paid holidays, Washington and Lincoln’s birthday celebrations were combined and called President’s Day. These stories began circulating in the 1950’s.
Adding to the confusion of these rumors was the notion that President Nixon is credited with changing Washingtong’s birthday to President’s Day commemorating ALL presidents including himself. Nixon did issue an Executive Order declaring the third Monday of February as Washington’s Birthday, but the notion he called for it to be called President’s Day celebrating all presidents was actually from a newspaper spoof.
According to this snopes article, in 1968, the New York Times reported:
“The first uniform Monday holiday plan was promulgated by NATO [the National Association of Travel Organizations] in the early 1950’s. It called for combining Washington’s and Lincoln’s Birthdays into a single President’s Day, to be celebrated the third Monday in February, and shifting Memorial Day to the fourth Monday in May, Independence Day to the first Monday in July and Veterans Day to the second Monday in November.
This initial effort met with sporadic success in a few states. But after several years of attempting to get the individual states to adopt uniform Monday holidays, it became apparent that a Federal bill was needed to serve as an example for state action.”
This is how confusion is spread through miscommunication. The third Monday of February is Washington’s Birthday, though you will, no doubt, see many a TV and newspaper ad depicting both Washington and Lincoln pushing products from furniture to kitchen items.
This is the stuff that brings us to coin phrases like, “don’t believe everything you read,” grows urban legends and makes sites like Snopes.com so popular. What say you? What do you celebrate on “President’s Day?”
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